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	  <td width="800px" valign="middle" class="legend"><p>What is a &quot;Mashup&quot;?</p>
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	<td class="help_body_text"><p><strong>What is a Mashup? How does this relate to the MapBlog Learning Object? <br />
    </strong> The MapBlog learning object used in your course is  an example of a new type of Internet based application called a  &quot;mashup&quot;. This help guide provides a brief overview of the mashup  concept. <br />
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	    A  &quot;mashup&quot; is the combination of digital content that you create with  functionality provided by some Internet application. A classic &quot;mashup&quot;  is the use of Google Maps to provide access to web pages or digital photos. A marker is placed on the map (provided by Google Maps),  and you click the marker to see the associated page or photo. This interface makes the location an inherent part of the  information that you have about the photo or the subject of the web page. This is very useful  when the information you are working with is tied to a location. For example, when working with web  pages about historical events or with wildlife photos.</p>
	  <p> Here's a particularly  well done example of a <a title="Link to Panoramio Photo Mashup" target="_blank" href="http://www.panoramio.com/map/" id="t29a"><b>Google Maps with photos mashup</b></a>.<br />
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	    As  mentioned, the map you see is a standard map from Google Maps, and  Google provides tools that make it (relatively) easy to create  applications like this. In fact, hundreds of different mashups based on  Google Maps are available, and not all are used for fun and vacation  photos. The <a title="Link to MapEcos mashup" target="_blank" href="http://mapecos.org/map" id="jckt"><b>MapEcos</b></a> mashup allows you to see the environmental  performance of industrial sites in your area. If you try this mashup  for yourself be sure to zoom in close so that you can click on one of  the individual locations and see the detailed information. And be  patient, the large amount of data associated with the map makes the  response a bit sluggish. That's another aspect of using mashups that is  worth noting. The information and data that you provide, and the maps  themselves, come from different servers on the internet, are joined,  and are then sent to you as a single page. Because of this architecture  mashups tend to feel sluggish when compared other types of web sites.  You have to allow for this. <br />
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	    And  mashup are more then just maps. Google Maps is just one example of the  kind of online software on which a mashup can be based. The term  actually refers to any application where data that you create; photos,  web pages, documents, video, statistics, etc, is combined with some  Internet application so that the sum is greater than the parts. Here's  another example, this one is called  <a title="Link to InSuggest Photo Mashup" target="_blank" href="http://images.insuggest.com/" id="eu12"><b>InSuggest</b></a> , and it also uses photos,  this time being loaded from the popular online photo website Flickr. <br />
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	    To  use this mashup, drag a photo that you like from the display area to  the drop boxes at the top of the page (marked &quot;drop here&quot;). The site  then selects and displays additional photos similar to the one you  selected. But what does it mean to say that a photo is like the one you  selected? Well that's the added functionality provided by this mashup.  You can read on the site how the selection of similar photos is made,  but it is based on a technology called &quot;tagging&quot;. Tagging is an  increasingly popular technique for organizing large bodies of  information. <br />
	    <br />
	    This  mashup is great if you are looking for photos on a very specific topic.  For example, I was recently looking for photos of old dutch windmills.  I searched for &quot;windmill&quot; and as you might expect this returned photos  of windmills of all types. But among the initial selection were a  couple of photos of dutch windmills, and by using those images to  refine the selection I was able to easily find additional pictures of  the type I was looking for. Of course, finding pictures on this site  does NOT give you permission to use the photos, for that you have to  contact the copyright holder. A prominent link is provided along with  each image. <br />
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	    So  how would you link your photos with the place the picture was taken as  shown on Google Maps? Well this is actually pretty easy. Google maps  provides a feature called &quot;MyMaps&quot; and Flickr allows you to get a URL  (a web address) for each photo that you upload. Combine the two and  your vacation photos can be viewed through a map interface. Pretty  snazzy.</p></td>
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